Chapter 140: Starting Today, We're Keeping You

Sound of the Sea walked over to Render, leaned in close with a pretty expression, and whispered something to him while covering her mouth with her hand.

Render stood frozen for a few seconds before suddenly speaking up.

"Big Boss, if I say that our Guild Anthem will cover all your ammunition costs from now on, will you help us out whenever Guild Anthem runs into trouble?"

"What?!"

Huang Yunshuo was startled. Such a generous offer?!

He had no idea if the rocket launcher had even been around for a full 24 hours since its creation yesterday, but it had already fired at least five to six thousand rounds. The cost of the ammunition alone was at least 40,000 copper coins as a baseline.

And that was just one day of consumption...

Could Guild Anthem really afford to be that generous?

"We are serious. After all, Guild Anthem has a large membership, so we can definitely handle your ammunition expenses," Render said earnestly. "If you agree, Sound of the Sea will personally mail rocket shells to you regularly. We just hope that whenever we encounter major troubles or minor issues, you can lend a hand!"

"Yes, yes, yes! From large-scale legion battles down to dungeon runs," Sound of the Sea chimed in with her sweet, doll-like voice.

"Damn it."

Huang Yunshuo slapped his thigh. If they could solve the rocket shell problem for him, then say no more! He would walk through fire and tread on blades... well, maybe not quite that dramatic, but he would definitely come to their aid whenever trouble arose!

Helping out pretty girls—and not even working for free—wasn't a big deal at all.

"Then it's settled! Let's add each other as friends. Oh right, Big Boss, I'll invite you into our management chat group..."

"Just call me Big Huang or Brother Huang."

Constantly being addressed as "Big Boss" felt awkward, so Huang Yunshuo quickly spoke up.

Returning to Sakura Terrace Town, Huang Yunshuo placed a single Little Rooster Feather on the tailor shop's counter.

"Auntie, what is this thing used for?" he asked.

The tailor shop matron chuckled and said, "One Little Rooster Feather is far from enough! If you can bring out a few more, perhaps I'll give you a surprise!"

Huang Yunshuo's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately took out all 80 feathers from his inventory in one go.

"So many!"

The matron was startled as well. These Little Rooster Feathers were notoriously difficult to collect; the adventurer before her truly lived up to his reputation as a champion warrior!

"If there are this many, I can give you a surprise for free!" the matron said with absolute confidence.

Catching the flash of cunning that quickly crossed her eyes, Huang Yunshuo rolled his eyes.

Damn it all.

She was about to dock some of his materials again.

"If I can bring out even more Little Rooster Feathers, I wonder if this surprise will be even greater?" Huang Yunshuo thought for a moment and asked the matron.

"Of course it will!"

Upon receiving a positive reply, Huang Yunshuo swept all the Little Rooster Feathers back into his backpack, marked Sakura Terrace Town with his Spacetime Ring, and then tore three Spacetime Scrolls to return to Stone Terrace Town.

"Sister Yin, have the monsters in the town respawned yet?" Huang Yunshuo asked, seeing that Yu Shiyin was chatting in the Brotherhood channel.

"Little White Rabbits and Sloths have already spawned, but the others haven't stirred yet!" Yu Shiyin replied.

"Then I'll wait a bit."

Huang Yunshuo nodded, activated auto-pathing, and headed in the direction of the Elephant Mine.

[The Little Rooster Cluck-a-Rooney in xx Town has been slain... xx Town defense successful...]

[The Little Rooster Cluck-a-Rooney in Fallen Phoenix Town has been slain... Fallen Phoenix Town defense failed...]

Within the span of just a few minutes, system announcements rang out frequently, successively broadcasting the defense results of six towns.

In the end, Datang Smoky Clouds still failed their town defense.

"I really wish I could take on a mercenary quest again," Huang Yunshuo muttered, shaking his head with a trace of regret.

Within two minutes at most, the server-wide town defense event would completely end.

Those towns with solid defenses could withstand the assault of the deadly aura-wielding boss Cluck-a-Rooney.

Those with weak defenses had long since been overrun and crushed into a bloody mess by the army of small animals.

Fewer than 50 towns across the entire server would successfully defend, and the number definitely wouldn't exceed 100.

The version update was also about to be completed. Although this was merely an internal upgrade, the newly updated content was immensely important.

There were a few points Huang Yunshuo cared about, the first being racial traits.

Human Focus, Elven Precision, Berserker Frenzy, Elemental Mystery, Featherfolk Flight, Divine Holy Light, and Demonic Sacrifice.

Players had learned about the seven major racial traits during character creation, but they were described in rather general terms back then. Today's update would showcase the specific manifestations of these racial traits, which filled everyone with anticipation.

The second point was riding.

Would mount systems grant attributes to players?

What was the speed of standard mounts?

How long did it take to summon and stow them away, and would combat states interrupt the process?

Could non-knight players engage in mounted combat?

Huang Yunshuo's current movement speed had already reached 100% + 30% (Spacetime Ring) + 10% (Thruster) + 5% (Lianyun White Robe) + 5% (Frenzied Cloak) + 3% (Adventure Badge) + 2% (Lianyun Boots), totaling a terrifying 155% movement speed, with a 55% extra bonus.

Boosted by his currently extremely high agility stat of 119-124 points, his walking speed was explosively fast, roughly double that of ordinary players.

If the riding system proved user-friendly, Huang Yunshuo worried that his movement speed advantage over others would be diluted, thereby impacting many aspects of the game.

The third point was the arena and dungeons.

PK against other players brought endless joy, and the appearance of the arena meant that major tournaments were also beginning to be planned.

Dungeon loot was something everyone looked forward to, and figuring out how to clear dungeons was an interesting challenge. One thing Huang Yunshuo found satisfying about *Forge Era* was its continuous updates of various Pve and PvP activities, leaving players with very little monotonous grinding time—it never felt boring, and that definitely deserved praise.

As for the final main quest, "Shadow of Bandits," it clearly targeted the bandit deserters, and he wondered what kind of stories and grudges lay behind it.

However, this content was clearly plotline that mainstream players would gradually unlock only after reaching levels 20-30. Even the internal update announcement relegated it to a corner, unloved and ignored, so there was no need to pay it much attention.

The 20-point Mana Recovery Spray had officially hit the store shelves, along with a limited stock of the 50-point spray. Caster classes should be celebrating nationwide; starting today, caster classes could finally become truly overpowered.

He opened the forums.

*"Dreams are your dreams, the sky is my sky, wings are your wings, and the sky is still my sky!"*

The reply count had broken one million.

Highlighted, pinned, curated, and trending.

After being processed by a super moderator, a reply of "Love you, Big Boss" was left right in the main post.

Although the super moderator was very gracious, the offensive firepower within the thread was fiercely aggressive beyond belief. Over 80% of the million-plus posts consisted of Featherfolk players targeting him collectively, while the remaining 20% were just onlookers enjoying the show.

"Good-for-nothing trash, does having a flying piece of equipment make you think you can ascend to heaven?"

"Do you have any self-awareness about whose sky this actually is?"

"Jeez, is this trash getting too full of himself? Does he really think he's transcended mortality just because a bunch of people call him Big Boss?"

"I hope you have some idea of how many Featherfolk players there are, so you don't end up crying for your daddy when we pin you to the ground and beat you."

"The Featherfolk guild *Cloud Peak* publicly and angrily denounces this mental defective; we will kill him every time we see him."